Spoiler warning!

As a fantasy reader it was only by coincidence that I stumbled across Robin Hobb's Farseer series. Of the three triologies, it is indeed the last series, The Tawny man, that made the deepest and most lasting impression on me. The previous books in this series, Fool's errand and Golden Fool, build up to an intense climax in the last book, Fool's Fate. Robin Hobb has an excellant way of involving the reader in the thoughts and emotions of the main characters, in a way that surpasses all other fantasy books I have ever read.

And that is possibly the reason why I personally cannot let this book go. I have read and reread the ending of the book a dozen times, and it still leaves me unsatisfied. At first I believed it was the sadness of the parting of Fitz and the Fool that troubled me. It plagued me that the author did not want to end the book in a way that let the two of them stay together. After a while, however, I felt it was more the inconsistency of the ending that bothered me. First there is Fitz whose bonding to the Fool is so strong that he is willing to take the Fool's place in death. Then there is the Fool's love for Fitz that is so strong and selfless that he lets Fitz go so that he can have a complete life. But then they are ripped apart by fate, and the Fool departs Buckkeep believing that Fitz (most likely) is dead. And after learning of the Fool's departure under these misconceptions, Fitz does not do anything.

This ending, which in my opinion isn't truly an end, is why I cannot rate the book higher. This is exclusively for personal reasons, for as a literary work, there is no doubt that this book is beyond almost anything I have read in the fantasy genre. In fact, I believe it is because the characters are so alive and so believable, that I have made the story in the book my own, and I too feel so keenly that the parting of Fitz and the Fool is unsatisfactory.

I dream that the story will continue in another book. I dream that we might meet Fitz and the Fool again. And most of all I dream that this time the story will end happily for the Beloved Fool as well, he who of all characters touched my heart the most.

Fool's Fate, what a way to end a nine book series. This is fantasy at it's best, and that may be because its not at all that much fantasy. These books that Robin Hobb has written are based on the characters, not the magic they weave, the dragons they ride, or the battles they fight. The interaction between Fitz and Fool, between Fitz and his daughter, Nettle, between Fitz and Molly, all are something that each of us can relate to. None of us has ridden a dragon, none of us talk to our animals using 'the Wit', rarely, few of us have fought a battle with nothing but a long sword. But each and every one of us have loved someone, only for them to never return, most of us adults have stopped at nothing to protect our children, and we all have longed for that certain someone. Hobb puts down on paper her version of each, and oh is it compelling.

I've read a good bit of fantasy and yet have I read a book that ends the way this one does. I won't spoil it, but it ends the way real life happens-never the way you want it to happen. Yes it's sad and no it's not how you want the characters to be left standing, but it is so real that you can't deny the originality of it, originality in a sense of real life in comparison to fantasy.

To me, these characters are real, they are a part of my every day life. I think about them from time to time and sometimes I say, 'hmm, what would Fitz do?' I'm not obsessive, it's just Hobb has written characters that are almost too true to life. These books seem more like autobiographies than they do as modern day fantasy fiction. The Assassin's Trilogy, The Liveship Traders Trilogy, and The Tawny Man Trilogy hit close to home.

My partner bought me the first Farseer book for Christmas, saying that he thought I'd like it. Like it?? I've read all of them now and its only February! Fool's Fate however is just fantastic, I can honestly say I've never read such a huge book so quickly! I finished it in 4 days!

This book is just impossible to put down, and the places it takes you to are just so real. The characters are so convincing you feel as if you've known them forever. The world they live in becomes as real to the reader as our world, where does she get it all from?

The only thing that stops me rating this as a 5 is the ending. I feel that the Fool and Fitz's relationship were not resolved to a satisfying degree. However, I'm hoping against hope that this may mean another book in the future, one where the mystery of the Fool's beginnings and race are explained.

I'd love to know who he really is and where he comes from, as he is described as "not human" in the text of Fool's Fate. Surely after all the two of them have been through, it cannot end so easily. Fitz is the catalyst and must have many more years of changes to make, and surely the Fool can start prophesying again?

Lets hope so... I want to go to the Six Duchies again...please!!!